It is often advised that the secret to a successful trip is to first choose the right partner/s. So much can go awry and, before you know it, flame out of control. Companions must share understanding, respect, support and camaraderie. It also helps to have an insightful leader whose cheer comes through your enjoyment.

After 50 years of traveling and 43 books, the legendary travel writer Paul Theroux says, “You go away for a long time and return a different person – you never come all the way back”. I would add – “Make sure you come back better, not bitter – with great memories for a lifetime”.

So it is with our family trips to Manhattan. I know it to be true – the City poses many daunting challenges – most of which can be avoided by following your leader and discounting popular opinion. I benefit from the living-in-the-city wisdom of our daughter, serving as our local escort and guide. We recently returned from our fifth visit, to explore and experience all that Manhattan offers. Having multiple-day, multiple trips under our belts gives us a format for something new and different, each return trip. While we have collectively taken in most all of the top-draw attractions in New York City – it is the exploration of the street-culture and neighborhoods that has provided us with lasting memories. “So complete is each neighborhood,” wrote E.B. White, “that many a New Yorker spends a lifetime within the confines of an area smaller than a country village”. These pockets of distinctively ethnic personalities give the metropolis its human face and pulse of daily life.

Our daughter actually walked the length of Broadway one day, from north to south, just to experience the entire cross-cut of Manhattan. She has built her appreciation of the City from the ground up, exploring the neighborhoods – and in less than three years of residency has mastered the subway system sans maps. She is fortunate and lucky always – as if wrapped in a perpetual fortune cookie. This attribute means that plans with her don’t go astray and everything works out splendidly.

Here is an example from our recent 2011, spring-time trip. We arrived early at our modest, Ramada Eastside, red-brick hotel – which caters to mostly international guests. We were told that our reservation had been cancelled – something to do with a credit card – blame it on today’s economy. We were shown a hand-written list of eleven other hotels that were also booked solid for the Easter Weekend. Arriving at 10:30 AM, as our daughter suggested, proved to be our first stroke of luck. We were checked in after some hand-wringing and through the kindness of an hotelier that recognized us as repeat customers.

We negotiated the subway to join our daughter in the Upper West Side for a tour of Columbia University’s Morningside Campus and Teachers College (her soon-to-be alma mater). For the tour, we were paired with Molly, the sweetest mid-western student-guide. The institution, founded in 1754 as King’s College, moved uptown in the 1890’s and is a great destination for any visitor – the grounds are meticulously maintained and the architecture and garden sculptures are world-class.

Afterwards we went to the magnificent Riverside Church and the Union Theological Seminary and enjoyed the sanctuary as the lone visitors. We strolled back across the campus in perfect blue-sky weather and went to The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. The cornerstone of the world’s largest Gothic cathedral was laid on St. Johns Day, December 27th, 1892. The architectural design is based on a Byzantine-Romanesque plan. Next door is the Cathedral Close and park with an extraordinary sculpture, almost beyond description.

For an afternoon pick-up we went to the famous Hungarian Pastry Shop & Coffee Bar at 1030 Amsterdam Avenue which happened to be celebrating their 50th Birthday in Business with all items for 50 cents each. The place was packed but we were given the “staff’s table”, front row and center, where we joined in with song and praise for the owner and his wait staff – some of whom had worked there for 17 years. Our tab was a total of $3.00 for items that would have been well over $20.00 – a fortuitous start to our trip for sure.